My Cattle Station

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Hey guys.
So having left Airlie beach, we made a mid morning stop to play some lawn bowls. Now i did quite well, having played a few times with Dad, though the lawns were too brown and fast for my liking! Plus it was too hot, even for bowls. From there we travelled, whilst watching starsky and hutch, to Rockhampton for a subway lunch, happy days, who says i cant splash out every now and then! And then the last leg of the day to Kroombit cattle station was covered by Die another day. Also, during this leg of the journey the scenery was particularly good, especially the last 10km or so down a dirt track to the ranch. Though we arrived in rain, yes rain, it cleared up for a lovely evening.

Having checked into our room, basically a converted stable, but really cool with proper bedding and everything, i got a great sleep last night thats for sure! We wacked on the insect repellant and headed to the bar, well, a wooden counter in the woods, but very cool. The whole place was just wooden roofs and such. Had a bit of a chat with some other people, learnt some names of faces we keep saying, and then we all sat down for dinner. Soup, followed by roast beef. It was spectacular, but more for the fact it was a roast, obviously nothing on mums! The tables were huge and basically made from trees, yes i know thats where wood comes from but it had barely been worked on at all, thats my point!

After dinner, we all sat down to be told about the station by Al, assuming the current owner. Told us all about the history of the area, and how they round up cattle etc. There followed a lesson in crack whipping. After a few failed attempts, I finally got it going, though not without whipping my own legs and arms a few times first. Ollie though was very good at it, glad one of us was! The level of flies etc was weird, but they all left me alone, clever creatures! The last activity of the night was the mechanical bull. Having waited til the end, and seen lots of bad falls, i eventually got my go. Ok, so no pro, but did better than a lot, though from a guys point of view, this is not a fun past time, if you know what i mean! Went to bed and slept great from 11.

Woken up at 6am for breakfast, ate outside, obviously, so had to dig the hoodie out. Some people went riding, so the rest of us did a walk up one of the nearby hills. It got warm very quickly, and regretted taking the hoodie. The view from the top was well worth it, and it was great to finally be seeing Australia, and not just the tourism and commercialism of the east coast. Proper Bush, and a proper cattle ranch. The walk was cool, and got to know Charlie, who i may well be seeing a lot more, including in New Zealand.

We then joined up with the riders and did some shotgun shooting. Very fun, and i hit 2of 5 clay pigeons, so i was happy with that. Shooting that gun was a very cool experience! Had to then team up in threes to do a goat rodeo. One person caught it (me), one tipped it, and one branded it (with a COLD brand, not properly!). Really funny, though we only came second! The last bit of fun was being prodded on the backside with a cattle prod, i was one of only a few who did it, yes im crazy!

Left the ranch at 11 and drove for most of the day to get to Hervey bay ready for our fraser island safari. Should be good, and will hopefully tell you all about it on thursday or friday night! Please feel free to leaves messages/e-mails/text!

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